Ice packs and hot water bottles have been around for a long time. Their therapeutic usefulness for treatment of aches, pains, sprains, and the like, have taken on new significance in the field of medicine, particularly so-called sports medicine.
The healing process of torn muscle and connective tissue has been scrutinized by the practitioners of sports medicine to allow the recuperation of injured athletes as quickly as possible.
The severe stress imposed on particular body parts, especially joints, by modern sports, particularly professional and highly competitive sports, has subjected certain athletes to an almost constant recuperative regimen to restore vitality to the affected area.
It is unnatural for the body to be subjected to such strenuous repetitive action of a particular type. For example, pitching a baseball, or stroking a tennis ball employs a natural movement, but damage occurs when one does such activity in serious competition as a full time profession, or in the case of some joggers as an obsession.
Thermo packs from sub-freezing cold to almost scalding are used to speed and enhance the healing process. Some treatment regimens prescribe alternation of hot and cold to stimulate the restorative process.
The proliferation of clinics, wide spread participation by the public in serious competitive sports, and the like, have all created a need for thermo packs of the type of the present invention that are soft and pliable and safe to use at a wide variety of temperatures.
Natural and readily available materials are used in the thermo pack where possible and salt is used to possibly add a healing or restorative factor.
Some thermo packs heretofore designed to stay soft have used antifreeze liquids such as alcohol or ethylene glycol to keep the liquid of the pack soft even at sub-freezing temperatures.
Normally, the cold packs are stored in a freezer until used. Hot packs are heated normally on a stove in a container of water.
The problem with some of the additives mixed with water in the packs is that the alcohol, for example, may begin to boil prior to water and cause the pack to explode or leak by splitting a seam. Some packs change consistency across their usable temperature range.
The present pack employs salt at a saturated level to provide lowered freezing point.
The packs, of course, can be used for a variety of purposes by anyone, not just the serious athlete.
The saline of the present invention is mixed into a paste with cellulose and flour.